OPC Technology Summit Presentations Available for Download

The inaugural OPC Technology Summit, hosted by the OPC Foundation, concluded on Thursday, October 18, after a multi-day program that brought together OPC technologists, solution providers and end-users to discuss the next-generation OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) technology. OPC is the open platform connectivity standard for secure, reliable data and information integration in automation and related domains. In the OPC Foundation’s ongoing efforts to promote OPC education and awareness, the Summit presentations have been made available for download at its web site.

The OPC Technology Summit 2012 kicked off with an OPC UA technology overview and value proposition presentation by Thomas Burke, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation. Following were presentations from Rashesh Mody, of Invensys, and Mbaga Ahorukomeye, of Schlumberger, that outlined key benefits of OPC UA for driving operational excellence and business results. In particular, Mr. Ahorukomeye noted, “OPC UA was a lifesaver. Adopting OPC UA in our drilling automation architecture was one of the best things we did,” citing its fast data updates and extensible security model and web services.

An “OPC UA Technology Roadmap” presentation featured technologists from ABB, Rockwell Automation, Siemens and Yokogawa, who mapped out their companies’ OPC UA adoption strategies. (See photo.) Discussed by each company representative was a key feature of OPC UA: its unified information model, which provides information, not just data, in a standardized IT-friendly format.

The Summit showcased a number of presentations by end-users, including a discussion of OPC UA’s use from shop-floor to top-floor, connecting programmable controller data to the ERP system, and its use in major theme park attractions at Universal Parks and Resorts. The OPC Foundation’s Certification and Compliance Program was presented by Nathan Pocock, OPC Foundation Director of Compliance, and Bill Cotter, of 3M. Security was a major theme in several presentations, and in particular, in the keynote address from Lisa Kaiser, Director of Strategic Planning for the Control Systems Security Program at the Department of Homeland Security.

Sponsors of the OPC Technology Summit 2012 include: ABB, ascolab, Beckhoff Automation, ICONICS, InduSoft, Invensys, Kepware Technologies, MatrikonOPC, MOBIFORM Software, Online Development Inc. (OLDI), OSIsoft, Rockwell Automation, Real Time Automation, Inc. (RTA), SAP, Siemens, Softing, Software Toolbox and Unified Automation.

Plans for an OPC Technology Summit 2013 are underway, with a date and location to be announced in early 2013. For more information on this year’s Summit, please download the presentations from the OPC Foundation web site.